NEW CENTRALIZED TRANSPORTATION CENTER BENEFITS PATIENTS AND STAFF A new centralized transportation system is greatly helping staff at Methodist Healthcare facilities deliver a better patient experience. The new Centralized Transportation Center, which began in February, enables discharge nurses at any Methodist Healthcare facility as well as our Emergency Departments and FreeStanding Emergency Departments to call one phone number to arrange transportation for patients leaving the facility. “All transportation requests now come through one place,” said Brandon Miller, EMS Relations Manager for Methodist Healthcare. “Then all our EMS providers are contacted at one time with information on the patient needing transportation, their destination, and any special needs. They get back to us with the estimated time of arrival and we assign the request to the fastest provider.” In addition, only vetted EMS providers who share performance data for continual process improvement and training purposes are utilized. The center also can be called to transport a patient from one Methodist Healthcare facility to another when different services are needed. Brandon said the EMS Relations Team saw staff such as nurses and case managers, spending a long time waiting for responses from providers or being told no transportation was available. This meant that some patients were waiting in their beds for hours and nurses were taken away from bedside activities.
EMS Relations Manager, Jason Miller, helps traffic transport calls.
24 | Methodist Magazine
“Our ERs have been full lately with patients waiting for beds,” said Brandon. “With the Centralized Transportation Center patients leave the hospital sooner, making more beds available.”
